Sat, August 1

In this exuberant ensemble work, Dutch choreographer van Manen displays his mastery for building dazzling creations from simple motifs and geometric patterns. Driven by the rhythms of Henryk Górecki’s score, the dancers come together and disperse in endlessly shifting formations that culminate in two sensual pas de deux.

With arms flapping like wings, torso rippling and head held high, a warrior is transformed into the proud, powerful ostrich ­— the king of birds. Sierra Leone-born choreographer Dafora blended his vision of a traditional African dance with Western staging in this groundbreaking 1932 solo set to Carl Riley’s score of African drumming and flute.

In Ronald K. Brown’s Four Corners, 11 dancers depict spiritual seekers amid four angels standing on the corners of the earth, holding the four winds. In creating his fifth commission for the Ailey company since 1999, the celebrated choreographer turned to the song “Lamentations” by his friend, recording artist Carl Hancock Rux. Drawing from West African and modern dance influences, Brown uses grounded, earthy movements to portray figures who are burdened by grief but ultimately find peace, solace, and freedom with the aid of “the angels in their corners” mentioned in Rux’s text.

Home, choreographed by bold hip-hop choreographer Rennie Harris, is inspired by the stories of people living with or affected by HIV. Drawing upon poems and images submitted in 2011 to the Fight HIV Your Way contest, an initiative of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Harris created a compelling work that conveys both the chilling isolation and uplifting sense of community many experience.

This propulsive world premiere by in-demand choreographer Aszure Barton accentuates the vitality and physical prowess of the Ailey company. Driven by the dancers’ passion, skill and collective power, the work was created over a developmental process with the entire Company. The percussive score, composed by Curtis Macdonald, is infused with the infectious energy and heart that she observed in her initial encounters with the Ailey dancers.

In Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain Pas de Deux, a couple performs a haunting pas de deux set to Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel. The work first premiered in 2005 at New York City Ballet’s annual New Combinations Evening, which honors the anniversary of George Balanchine’s birth with world premieres. The dreamlike male-female duet has been widely praised for its sublime simplicity and intricate partnering, and it is revealed in a fresh light as the Ailey dancers make it their own.

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Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was founded in 1958 by dancer, choreographer and visionary Alvin Ailey, to bring African-American cultural expression and the American modern dance tradition to the world.

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